Jonny be good for England after KP

You want to be one of the eleven guys who pulls on the shirt and represents England

Jonny Bairstow

Bairstow, scorer of 95 and 54 in England’s most recent Test match at Lord’s, made 118 against Mumbai A – the rock of England’s 338-6 on day one of their second tour match – as Eoin Morgan and Samit Patel also weighed in.

But thanks to a certain bloke by the name of Pietersen, he will soon find himself back in an understudy role again.

Bairstow knows KP is ahead of him in the pecking order, saying: “You want to be one of the eleven guys who pulls on the shirt and represents England.

“But if at the end of the day the balance of the side means you miss out, then so be it.

“You keep working hard and if you’re not selected, spend the Test in the nets.”

He will not be sulking, if others are preferred.

He said: “I’d be pleased if I did get the call but the balance of the team is the most important thing.

“Samit is in good form, coming off a century against India A and getting runs here as well – which is brilliant.

“Morgy is as well, so I wouldn’t like to be in the position of the people above.

“But that’s their job and we can’t do anything about it.

“I wouldn’t say I’d feel hard done by because the team comes first.

“If it’s right for someone else to get picked in front of you for the sake of the team then so be it.

“There’s masses of competition in that middle order but there’s only eleven people who can play.

“So you hope scoring a weight of runs in the warm-ups means you’re pushing for a place in that side.

“I was pleased with the performance I put in when asked to play in that Test at Lord’s.

“I can only score as many runs as I can, work as hard as I can in the nets and do everything in my power to put my case forward for that final selection.”

Even so, it was a fair bet Cook and coach Andy Flower would have readily swapped all of that for a more clear-cut indication of whether Joe Root or Nick Compton is likely to have what it takes in Ahmedabad on November 15.

The ‘shoot-out’ billed between them lasted little more than 15 minutes.

The two contenders at least both got off the mark, Compton having to dive in to complete the scampered single which got Root under way.

His reward, however, was a good ball soon afterwards from Kshemal Waingankar which held its line and evaded his forward-defence to knock out off-stump.

Root fared better, displaying the maturity which has impressed so many as he waited more than an hour before registering a boundary.

It was to be Root’s only four, before he was caught at short-leg off the spin of captain Suryakumar Yadav.

Jonathan Trott shared a half-century stand with Root before a waft at a wide one from Javed Khan brought an edge behind.

Ian Bell was also caught behind but Bairstow and Morgan were up to the task.

Thakur eventually had Morgan lbw with a yorker.

But Patel carried on his fine form with a 50 to help Bairstow past his hundred.